Emissions deleting a wood stove

BarnyardEngineering

Well-known Member
Location
Rochester, NY
I've got a Vermont Castings wood stove with one of those ceramic catalytic "combustors" in the top. Usually can get 2-3 years out of one, but this year we started with a new catalyst, and it's already plugged up and disintegrating.

These things are $140 a pop and up. It would be cheaper to heat with oil if we're going through 2-3 of these a year.

It has a bypass door that you open when loading the stove, but if you leave it open, it will go through an entire firebox of wood in minutes and shoot the heat all up the chimney.

Anybody done an "emissions delete" on their wood stove? I imagine a thick steel plate with some holes in it to replace the expensive ceramic thing, but how many holes and what size? This isn't something you can conveniently trial and error.
 
Ive never seen one before but if it is ceramic, couldnt it be cleaned, cooked clean,oven cleaner used on it. I dont know.
 
I had a Vermont Castings stove, Defiant Encore. The catalyst went bad and I didnot realize, cost a fortune to get chimney cleaned. Also found out the
refractoy material around was disintegrating. Replaced stove with Jotul. Love it
 
I have a 15 year old Consolidated Dutchwest XL stove (bought out by Vermont Castings) with a ceramic catalytic combustor that is used for heat 90% of the winter.
It is the 3rd CDXL I have had. I burn it hot, use oak and ash as much as possible and clean the chimney every month whether it needs it or not. In those 15 years
I have replaced the combustor twice with the current one on its 4th year (it is doing its red-hot job right now). I really like that burst of extra heat when the
combustor kicks in and love the smell of the exhaust down out of the stove pipe and across the yard- it smells like a coal fire without all the nasty, polluting
unburnt gases!

But, yeah, I guess you could try a stack of progressively smaller holes drilled in a stack of disks spaced apart by washers and through-bolts. That would slow
down your draw and slow down your fire, but it wont be as efficient as it was originally designed to be.
 
The one in my jotul was disintegrating
when I got it, I just removed it,
working fine now for years, I don't
see why you would need a steel plate
with holes to replace it.
 
Everything I have read in the past on those is that you need to start out in the morning, let the fire roar to get them hot,
then you can throttle back some. If you run your fire at a smolder all day, they don't get hot enough and will plug. Burning
wood that it is not well seasoned, or very pitchy, can contribute to a shorter life.

Got a stack thermometer? How's that running?
 
Yep, you gotta get the firebox up to a temperature hot enough to ignite the gases in the smoke (mine works well beyond 350F according to the stick on thermometer on the loading door ) before you route it through the combustor. Once it gets beyond that range you close it down a bit until the flames are not hitting the grille the combustor sits behind- you arent supposed to try and force flames up through them, just the super-hot smoke so the catalyst can ignite them. Direct flames on the ceramic material will cause it to fracture and collapse over time, but a good firing once and awhile seems to do mine no harm.

As Pete says, you got to keep it hot to use the combustor correctly.
 
We just had a new Blaze king installed.

It has a bypass lever, used until the box gets hot enough then switch it to use the cat, so it does not get plugged up.

It has a built in thermometer at the cat.
Book says don't burn it to hot you will ruin the cat. (thermoeter in the red)

Love it and if used right it has a 10 guarantee on the cat.
 
When the combustor disintegrates completely, the stove burns wicked uncontrollably hot, and sends all the heat up the chimney.

Same as if you leave the bypass door open.

If the goal was to burn as much wood as possible, just leaving it out would be an option. There has to be something in there to restrict the airflow.
 
If your stove is air tight you can control the burn rate with the air intake drafts,if not air tight then you can put a damper in the pipe that goes to the chimney to adjust the exhaust air flow.With my Fisher Stove I can put the fire out by closing the drafts its air tight.
 
(quoted from post at 11:02:18 02/08/21) I've got a Vermont Castings wood stove with one of those ceramic catalytic "combustors" in the top. Usually can get 2-3 years out of one, but this year we started with a new catalyst, and it's already plugged up and disintegrating.

These things are $140 a pop and up. It would be cheaper to heat with oil if we're going through 2-3 of these a year.

It has a bypass door that you open when loading the stove, but if you leave it open, it will go through an entire firebox of wood in minutes and shoot the heat all up the chimney.

Anybody done an "emissions delete" on their wood stove? I imagine a thick steel plate with some holes in it to replace the expensive ceramic thing, but how many holes and what size? This isn't something you can conveniently trial and error.


Why don't you just put a damper in the chimney?
 
Maybe you could fabricate a baffle and convert it to a non-catalytic with secondary air, that's what we have, very efficient and maintenance
free.
 
Can you post some pics? Combustor on top? No idea what your talking about? Can you put a stack damper in
on the pipe coming off the stove?
 
The stove is airtight but the air intake drafts do nothing. You can open the ash door and the stove will take off and burn hot, but will practically go out when you close it. So I know it's airtight. However the air intake drafts are tiny and only move about 1/2" and don't let any appreciable amount of air in.

The pipe coming out of the stove is double wall, and I was told you can not put a damper in it. The pipe has to be double wall or the insurance company will not insure the house.
 
(quoted from post at 13:48:41 02/10/21) The stove is airtight but the air intake drafts do nothing. You can open the ash door and the stove will take off and burn hot, but will practically go out when you close it. So I know it's airtight. However the air intake drafts are tiny and only move about 1/2" and don't let any appreciable amount of air in.

The pipe coming out of the stove is double wall, and I was told you can not put a damper in it. The pipe has to be double wall or the insurance company will not insure the house.


2X put a damper in the pipe to the chimney. Replace one length of double wall with single wall. Code specifies a minimum distance from pipe to combustibles with different values for insulated and non-insulated. Get your tape out.
 
My Vermont Soapstone stove (about 12 seasons old) has a catylitic converter as he has described. I burn only softwoods (it is falling down around the house!), only fire about 40 day per year, only daytime as I am not about lay awake nights....it basically is entertainment watching-through-a-window heat.

However, I kept the 3600 sq ft house warm when the geo furnace went down...for all of February here in NE IA.
Instructions say when the little thermometer laying on top of the stove shows "go", I throw the lever putting the cat into the flue path. And then the heat comes!!

I vacuum with a soft brush, from both sides of the cat and found a few fat fuzzy pipe cleaners from a hobby/craft shop and do what I can to clean the holes.

I never start or burn fires with trash, especially not heavy printed advertizing, just shoppers. But someday, I will have to replace the cat. It is nice seldom or never see any smoke (or steam?) come out of the chimney. And fooling with wood is pleasant excercise, since it not critical.
 
if you make a plate with holes make it out of stainless steel, will do the same as the cat does.
 

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